This invention relates to a method and an apparatus for opening fiber bales by means of two rapidly rotating fiber detaching devices, such as sawtooth rollers which are arranged above a row of freely standing fiber bales and which travel back and forth while the teeth of the opening devices project through a bale holding device such as a grate and penetrate into the fiber bales. The opening device detaches the fiber tufts from the bale surface and hurls them away therefrom. A suction device is provided to withdraw the fiber detached and thrown by the opening device.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,208,107 discloses a bale opener in which an opening device is moved up and down laterally at the fiber bales. The fiber tuft detaching device has two opening rollers provided with teeth which project through grate bars and remove fiber tufts from the bales. The direction of rotation of both opening rollers is, at the bale surface, directed inwardly, that is, towards one another. It is a disadvantage of this arrangement that the opening rollers work on the fiber bale surface with different orientation of the detaching teeth, that is, each opening roller works on the fiber bale in a direction which is opposite to the direction of orientation of its teeth.